Can they do this?

[phatsandsmall]

I have Name changed as this post put together with others previously Could potentially out me if people who know me see it.

Its work related and I have posted in Chat for traffic. However happy for it to be moved if it's felt necessary.

I have been on furlough since beginning of lockdown . No sign of going back yet- company has many businesses and is re opening gradually. We don't have a set date for ours to re open yet and it's likely to be some time.

Company have emailed all staff on furlough to let them know that they will automatically take a week off their holiday entitlement in July and if we are still furloughed in August the same again that month. HOWEVER they are not paying us a full weeks wages for this on top of furlough but topping up the 80% furlough pay to 100% for those weeks!

Have discussed this with other work colleagues on our zoom catch up and all agree we don't feel it's right but we don't really have a senior staff member to query it as before we went on lock down we had a temporary manager who was covering and to be honest he is not the most approachable person and it would be awkward to make contact and he is good at towing the company line and likely fob us off anyway!

Does anyone here know if they are allowed to do this?

Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance.

Furlough should only have been made available to businesses and companies forced to close due to lockdown not made a choice so greedy CEOs can not have to pay their staff for almost half the year!! Then use that benefit to cover holiday costs too!

Your idea has some merit, however the system should really have prevented you from accruing holiday whilst on furlough to meet those reasons, and that would be even better for the company than this system.

@dementedpixie

That still leaves 2.6 weeks of holiday still to be taken

How? we have 4 weeks holiday plus Bank holidays paid when we close. so after the 2 separate weeks taken automatically on furlough in July and August plus 1 week for Christmas many don't have choice but saving for to make sure they are paid for it. That leaves one week providing no holiday has already been taken jan- march before lock down. So many will be returning to work with no holiday entitlement until scheduled christmas break.

I have not come on to argue and say whose individual opinion is right and wrong it was the legality Of the situation I needed verifying- just because things are legal it doesn't mean we have to agree its ok for it to be fair. That goes for many things in life not just furlough.

everyone is entitled to 5.6 weeks or 28 days holiday - depends where the bank holidays fall I suppose.

@dementedpixie

everyone is entitled to 5.6 weeks or 28 days holiday - depends where the bank holidays fall I suppose.

Its the way our christmas break works. when we are closed the BH days (as per the other BHs throughout the year) are paid for- taken out of holiday entitlement -but a weeks worth of our shut down over Christmas are normal working days so if we want to be paid for those days we have to save holiday entitlement to cover them. Many have to or they lose a weeks wages and can't afford this. So for some - this christmas they won't now have enough holiday days available as they will already have automatically been taken whilst on furlough. We are unable to book holiday whilst on furlough so we can't even book it before the system automatically takes them in July and August.

So you are saying you want when you go back in September or even November if you are furloughed until the end of the scheme for everyone to then take 3-3.5 weeks holiday? How would that work and who would actually do the work? What will happen if you are in a place for example that only lets 2 people in a department take leave at a time? Work will need to refuse leave and you will be on here moaning that you haven’t been allowed to take leave!!!!
Most people would have taken at least a week and most likely 2 weeks between March and September anyways

Even with 20 days plus 8 bank holidays...you've not been able to take april and may BH (unless you were paid in full for these while furloughed?) So that's 4 days (Easter and 2 in may) that you've accrued and not been able to use so will have available to you when you return.

@QforCucumber

Even with 20 days plus 8 bank holidays...you've not been able to take april and may BH (unless you were paid in full for these while furloughed?) So that's 4 days (Easter and 2 in may) that you've accrued and not been able to use so will have available to you when you return.

Our furlough was topped up to 100% on those BH days

Oh I think I know what company...mainly as mine is doing the exact same thing.

It's a big backtrack for us as they weren't expecting so many on furlough for so long. Originally they were going to allow us to carry forward up to 5 days to next year.

Its allowed I think. But feels totally unfair as so many people save holiday for an extended xmas break. If you'd taken 2 weeks off at the beginning of the year, and hoped for to save 5 days for Christmas, its horribly unfair as you'd just lose it all.

Also they are some expecting everyone working to find the staff cover for 2 weeks holiday in the same period.

Cant see that happening...
Although I think those working can carry over with manager permission.

Not really read so much as this is on top making redundancies...so people might not want to take holiday... to max out on the final pay day. Plus leaving departments running...not quite short staffed, but obviously at the bare minimum and having to adjust to less people doing the work available.

In my case i had saved 2 weeks worth -We usually go away for a week around october half term and I save a week for Christmas. So now I won't be allowed to go away and I wont be paid for Christmas because its been dictated that i am having a both weeks in July and august when I am off being paid anyway (again not out of choice.) a few people i work with live literally hand to mouth each month and rely on the holiday over Christmas so they don't lose money and have struggled to put money aside on the furlough wage and no overtime obviously and are really going to struggle this year. But apparently thats selfish to moan about according to people here so I shall leave it there. I got the information needed in that they are in fact allowed to do this so its tough i guess.

I think you’re being completely unreasonable
It is very fair to expect employees to take annual leave now rather than accumulate it and take it all at the end of the year

I’m not furloughed , have taken a weeks unpaid leave as requested by the company and we have been told we need to take a certain % of annual leave by a certain time do not storing it up late in the year

Other friends in large corporates have had to do the same

We had to take four days mandatory holiday on the week with Easter Monday whilst on furlough

We've now had a letter stating that by the end of October we have to have used fifteen of our twenty five days holiday whilst on furlough

Reason being if we come back to work the company are worried too many ppl will have loads of holiday to still take and too many ppl will then be off